Key quotes on Thursday during the build-up to this weekend’s Ryder Cup, at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome:
“You’ll have to wait until 7:35 (am local time) to see who hits the first tee shot, but one of them will be.”
— Europe captain Luke Donald on who out of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton would hit the first tee shot on Friday morning.
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t believe everything Fred says.”
— US captain Zach Johnson on whether his vice-captain Fred Couples is spreading disinformation. Couples said Cameron Young would “definitely” be in the team before he was left out and then claimed Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas would play every session. They will miss Friday’s morning foursomes.
“They’ll be playing Marco Simone this week.”
— Johnson on whether the four players who missed out on the foursomes would play in the afternoon fourballs.
“Of course.”
— Donald on whether or not his American wife will be supporting Europe.
“On the practice trip, Nicolai left his passport in his luggage, delayed our flight for an hour.”
— Shane Lowry on European team-mate Nicolai Hojgaard’s mishap on the team’s pre-Ryder Cup visit to Rome earlier this month.
“A certain someone forgot their putter.”
— Matthew Fitzpatrick reveals Hojgaard’s other forgetful moment in a video posted on Team Europe’s Twitter account.
“It’s like ‘Au-ber’, sort of like ‘Uber’, with a Swedish accent.”
— Rory McIlroy on how to pronounce European rookie Ludvig Aberg’s surname.
